Cultivating Connections: The Meisho Farm Journey

Akira Shojima never planned to become a farmer. His curiosity about agriculture took him from Japan to farms in the Philippines, New Zealand, the United States, and Europe, where he discovered that farming could be much more than producing food. It could be a business, a community, and a source of new opportunities. After returning to Japan, he encountered the challenges facing Japanese agriculture and began asking a simple question: “What can I do?” In 2023, he founded Meisho Farm in Saga Prefecture and began building a different kind of farm, one shaped by connections with people, communities, schools, international partners, and local businesses. At Meisho Farm, these experiments include developing new ways to sell directly to restaurants and schools, creating local partnerships to develop new products, connecting agriculture with employment opportunities, hosting international visitors, and working with high schools to bring locally grown food into school cafeterias and dormitories. Through these experiences, Shojima is exploring how a small farm can build a more stable and expandable business while creating value beyond the farm itself. In this candid and personal journey, Shojima shares the experiences, challenges, unexpected connections, and ongoing experiments behind Meisho Farm and his vision for a future where cultivating connections can be just as important as cultivating crops.